Venus passes across the sun

Skywatchers across the world were left in awe as they viewed a rare astronomical event that will not be seen again for another 105 years.

Venus appeared as a small black dot moving slowly across the solar disc. The traverse lasted more than six and a half hours.

Observers in north and Central America, and the northern-most parts of South America saw the event start just before local sunset.

The far northwest of America, the Arctic, the western Pacific, and east Asia witnessed the entire passage.

While the UK and the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and eastern Africa waited for local sunrise to try to see the closing stages of the transit.

The photos pictured here, sent in by the president of the Astronomical Society of Malta Alexei Pace, were taken at 6:45am in Rabat.

According to the US space agency NASA Venus transits occur four times in approximately 243 years. Scientists explain that they appear in pairs of events separated by about eight years and about 105 or 121 years separate these pairs.

The reason for the long intervals lies in the fact that the orbits of Venus and Earth do not lie in the same plane and a transit can only occur if both planets and the Sun are situated exactly on one line.

This has happened only seven times previously in the telescopic age: in 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and 2004.

The next pair will now occur in 2117 and 2125.